On My Way (2013)

This movie aims at cute but suffers from a sloppy and tired script. It aims at realism, but instead gives us a fairy tale about the "rescue" of a bereft woman by a fine and -of course- handsome man. As that woman is in her mid sixties and her past clearly shows a lot of reliance on men all her life, this poor excuse for a scenario ("geriatric woman still attractive in France!") is not only flawed in its backward philosophy: it is also statistically improbable. No, granny, things don't happen so easily in life- sorry. I do not object to the loose threads and the little action in the script-that is actually what most human lives are about- but to keep a reasonable viewer's interest, whatever is presented to that viewer needs to be coherent and realistic. Instead, we have a disjointed road movie, where one cartoonish character after the other crosses the path of our spoiled 60ish heroine, and it feels like the director said to himself: " Oh, let's throw them in: this character is interesting! This character is fun! This character is edgy!" Unfortunately, no one in this film is either fun or interesting or edgy, or the opportunities to show them as such sadly fail to be exploited by the script. The grandson is an annoying brat, the great-grandmother is an annoying nag, and the older male rescuer is Mr Rochester (remember, Jane Eyre?): a gruff bear who transform into Prince Charming overnight. A feminist or even clever script, this ain't. An upbeat story on aging and possibilities? Not unless 1) you are Catherine Deneuve and the camera lingers on you lovingly 2) shows you smoking obsessively as if that were part of your charm (really? in 2014? How is that for a new idea!) 3) the script has young studs bed you eagerly even though you are in your 60s 4) and a strong man in your age range miraculously falls in love with you by the end. This script is a collection of magical-thinking inanities, and glorious Catherine Deneuve is wasted in them.